This is the second post of a multi-part series.
For Memorial Day 2022, I thought examining the Randolph and Hultin-Thrush Cemeteries would be interesting and a quick, fun investigation into the past population of Randolph. I mean, there are only nine individuals to research: how much could be involved with such a narrowly defined project?
My investigation was limited to digital resources, including familysearch.com, ancestry.com and newspapers.com. As I’d hoped, the research was interesting and fun but turned out to be not-so-quick. In the process of trying to identify one individual at the Hultin-Thrush Cemetery I found myself ensnared in a tangle of relationships — a subject for a future post.
In this post I share my research findings for the Randolph Cemetery. For information and an aerial view of the cemeteries at Randolph, please see Grave Stories, Part 1.
Below is the information available for the cemetery, provided by ORGenWeb for Coos County (part of the USGenWeb Project). The snip is copied from the listing of cemeteries with less than five graves:
Since Paul Lane is the only individual named at the Randolph Cemetery, I decided to start my research with him. I thought I had a good chance of finding out more about him because the grave marker identifies his date of death: 14 Jun 1877, and estimates his age at death as 27 years (thus an estimated birth date of 1850).
I began by searching the Online Cemetery and Obituary Data collection at the Bandon Historical Society. The “Lane” surnames listed on the site did not reveal any connections to him.
I next checked the 1860, 1870, and 1880 U.S. Census for the enumeration district that included Randolph, Coos County, Oregon. Searching for both “Lane” and “Paul” as surnames, I did not find a listing for him in any of the three censuses. I found just one listing for the “Lane” surname in the 1870 Census: Joseph, a 49-year-old farmer, born about 1821, in Pennsylvania.
Looking for a possible relationship between Joseph and Paul, I turned to ancestry.com and familysearch.org using the information provided by the cemetery listing and the 1870 Census. I also searched newspapers.com and Historic Oregon Newspapers at the University of Oregon. All these sources failed to provide any information about him. Ultimately, his life was inscribed in stone almost 150 years ago and remains within in a forest of silence. Perhaps an in-person examination of archival records at the Coos County courthouse would yield further information.
Although I didn’t learn anything new about Paul Lane this week, it is evident that someone in Randolph cared enough about him to mark his grave so that we would be able to remember his life today.
Do you know more about Mr. Lane or have a picture of his grave marker? Do you know about any other individuals buried in the Randolph Cemetery? If so, please contact me or leave a comment below.